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As far as American center backs go, Maurice Edu and Geoff Cameron have performed the best during Jürgen Klinsmann’s tenure as coach of the United States Men’s National Team.

The quality of Maurice Edu’s passing varies from game to game, but Edu looked much sharper and more skilled than Danny Williams did against Honduras. Despite Glasgow Rangers’ recent dip in form compared to years past, the fact that Edu played for Rangers in the past certainly indicates a degree of skill and athleticism that deserves recognition, and Edu has consistently been sought after by teams playing at a level beyond that which is found in Major League Soccer.

Despite Omar Gonzalez starting with Geoff Cameron in the United States Men’s National Team’s loss to Honduras in the most recent World Cup qualifier, Gonzalez acquitted himself well, and blaming Gonzalez for the loss is off base as Gonzalez was not the primary culprit on either Honduran goal.

Against Honduras, Gonzalez was not part of the defensive miscommunication between Geoff Cameron and goalkeeper Tim Howard that led to the second Honduran goal: a situation where Howard thought Cameron was going to clear the ball and Cameron thought Howard was coming out to get the ball. This miscommunication resulted in the game-winning goal, but blaming an entire loss on one miscommunication between a defender and goalkeeper seems not only harsh but also an inaccurate absolution of blame for all of the other teammates, who, for the most part, did almost nothing to create goal-scoring chances or to put Honduras on their heels.

Furthermore, somehow this miscommunication between a skilled defender and a goalkeeper (Cameron and Howard) seems to have been transferred over to Omar Gonzalez for essentially not sliding soon enough, after a mistake had been made, to save an easy goal, which resulted primarily from Cameron’s and Howard’s miscommunication and not Gonzalez’s positioning.

Whether people wish to blame Cameron or Howard or both is not important because it was a mistake that both players will surely remember for a long time, and both players will likely never hesitate to clear a ball again. With that being said, Gonzalez put in a fairly solid performance against a Honduran side, which was full of skilled, aggressive, quick, fast, and daring players who deserve credit for displaying much better skill and off the ball movement than the Americans. If one is being fair, there are not really any glaring instances one can point to where Gonzalez was beaten off the dribble or guilty of being victimized by Honduras.

Despite the fact that Gonzalez did pretty well in his first World Cup qualifier, there is an argument to be made that Maurice Edu and Geoff Cameron should have started the game against Honduras due to their experience playing together against Mexico in which they did a good job of shutting down Chicharito and helping the United States win.

If Jürgen Klinsmann wanted to play center backs with experience playing together against a quality opponent, then perhaps Edu and Cameron might have been the wiser choice, but Gonzalez was not really guilty of being outclassed on the field or putting in a poor performance.

Cameron and Gonzalez likely gained an enormous amount of experience by partnering with each other at center back, and if they were to start together again, they would probably demonstrate a noticeable improvement in their chemistry and defensive coordination.

For now, given Edu’s and Cameron’s performances against Mexico, starting both players at center back in the next World Cup qualifier against Costa Rica would provide the United States Men’s National Team with two fast and quick central defenders who have demonstrated that they can perform well against world-class strikers like Mexico’s and Manchester United’s striker, Chicharito.

Maurice Edu outclassed Danny Williams as a defensive midfielder in the loss to Honduras, and playing Edu at center back with Cameron would give the United States two center backs with at least one solid performance against a strong opponent, especially since Michael Bradley and Jermaine Jones are more than enough defensive coverage in the midfield to warrant the use of an excessive third defensive midfielder in the starting line-up.

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© Colin Reese